pyMDB

Welcome to pyMDB, a movie search engine based on IMDB datasets combined with detailed data from themoviedb.org.

Goal of this project

The aim of pyMDB is to create a web interface for searching movies based on different search criteria. The solution should be:

• Fast: Quick search times and responsiveness
• Easy to use: Inutitive user experience
• Lightweight: Sould not require much resources (memory, CPU)

Running pyMDB

Prerequisites

• NodeJS & NPM -> https://nodejs.org/en/download/
• Python version >= 3.8
• Pipenv -> sudo apt-get install python3-pip && sudp pip install pipenv
• Optional:
  • Docker -> https://docs.docker.com/engine/install
  • Docker-compose -> sudo apt-get install docker-compose

Installation

1. Clone the repository
2. In the py-backend directory of the project, execute pipenv install
3. In /angular-frontend/ execute npm install

Before the first start

TMDB Api Key

Before you can use the application, you have to register on themoviedb.org to get your own API-Key. Add this key under the config parameter TMDB_API_KEY in the config.ini configuration file. If you do not do this, you can still use the application, however the detailed information will not be available.

Paths

In the file py-backend/src/Config/config.ini two paths are defined, one for storing temporary data (TMP) and one where the database files for movies and users will be stored (DB_DATA).
You can define your own pathes or just leave them the way they are predefined. However, you must make sure that these directories exist and have the correct permissions, so that the user that executes the pymdb-Application can write to these directories.

Starting the application for development

Manually

You will have to start the python backend as well as the angular frontend.

Go to /angular-frontend/ and execute npm start. This will start the Development server at localhost:4200.

In /py-backend/src/ execute pipenv run python3 main.py, this will start the backend development server at localhost:5002.

Via Docker

To use the dockerized variant, you need to have the docker engine installed. There are two images defined, one for the backend, and one for the frontend. You can build and start those yourself individually (make sure to set network to "host"), or you can use 'docker-compose' in the root directory of the project:
$ docker-compose up
This will start the two containers and make them available in the host network.
In this setup, the following directories will be mounted into the container:

• /var/lib/pymdb (containing the database files, you need to create the database first by following the steps described in First run.
• angular-frontend/src (enables hot reloading for Angular development)

Note: You still need to add the TMDB API Key to the application as described above!

Using the app

First run

On the first run, you have to download the Imdb data and create your database. To do this, start the backend as described above with the command line argument update. This will download the files from https://datasets.imdbws.com one by one and read them into a SQLite database at the location defined in the config.ini file (/var/lib/pymdb by default). The process will exit after the database has been updated. For info about the database schema, please refer to py-backend/src/Services/DatabaseModel.py. The resulting database contains only information about movies, excluding adult films. Also not every value which is available from the datasets is read into the database to keep it lightweight.

Search filters

When the development servers are running, under localhost:4200 you will find the search interface. Some quick notes on the search filters:

• Title: Search by movie title. Performs a full text search on titles in all languages.
• Genres: Select up to 3 Genres.
• Min. Rating: Only show results with rating higher than this value. This also implies that a certain threshold for number of votes will be applied. This value can be changed in py-backend/src/Services/QueryService under MIN_NUM_VOTES.
• Min. Year/Max. Year: Get only results from certain time period
• Director: Get only results with this director.
  Note: Only full matches will be accepted (vs. Title search). Case-insensitive.
• Writer: Get only results with this writer.
  Note: Only full matches, case insensitive.
• Top billed actors: Include only movies which star these top-billed actors. Up to 3 can be specified. Important: This does not check all of the credits, only the top-billed ones. Usually this will include up to 5 actors who are the most well-known ones in a movie.
  Note: Only full matches, case insensitive.
• Results: Results to display per page
• Sort by: Choose which category to sort by (Relevance, Title, Year or Rating)

Detailed information view

By clicking on the title of a search result, you will get to the Detailed View. This contains information like a more complete cast list or the movie budget for example. Note that the information for this is obtained from the free themoviedb.org-API. For some movies only limited information might be available, or none at all.

Legal disclaimer

Imdb does only allow the database information to be used for personal and non-commercial use. Therefore you are not allowed to use this application in any way not permitted by Imdb.

That's it. Have fun! Contributions and feedback always welcome!